2.8 Linear Feet, 2 ft. 9 1/2 in. (6 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 document case, 2 1/2 in.); (6 oversize folders, 1 in.
total)
Creator
Kilgore, Harley Martin, 1893-1956
Location
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown,
WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Conditions Governing Access
No special access restriction applies.
Preferred Citation
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Harley Martin Kilgore (1893-1956), Senator, Papers, A&M 1500, West Virginia
and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Harley Martin Kilgore (January 11, 1893 - February 28, 1956) was born in Brown, West Virginia, to Quimby and Laura Martin
Kilgore. He received his LL.B. from West Virginia University in 1914 and was admitted to the bar the same year.
He taught school in Hancock, West Virginia in 1914 and 1915. Also in 1915, he organized the first high school in Raleigh County,
WV, and served as principal. He established his law practice in Beckley, WV in 1916. During World War I, he served in the
infantry from 1917 and was discharged as a captain in 1920. Kilgore married Lois Elaine Lilly in Huntington, WV on May 10,
1921. That same year, he helped organize the West Virginia National Guard, and was promoted to major and appointed commander
of 2nd Battalion the following year. He also served as Beckley city recorder in 1922. His son, Robert Martin Kilgore, was
born in 1924. His daughter, Elinor Stuart Kilgore, was born in 1926.
In 1932, Kilgore was assigned to the state headquarters of the National Guard. He was elected judge of the Raleigh County
criminal court from 1933 to 1940 on the Democratic ticket. In 1940, he was elected to the U.S. Senate with support from the
Neely faction of the Democratic Party, and won reelection in 1946 and 1952. Also in 1940, he was placed on active military
duty as judge advocate for West Virginia's Selective Service system until he entered the Senate. A member of the U.S. Senate
from 1941 until his death, Kilgore served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Committee to Investigate the National
Defense Program. In October 1942, he became chair of the Subcommittee on War Mobilization of the Military Affairs Committee
(also known as the Kilgore Committee).
In 1948, Kilgore served as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention, where he was an outspoken supporter of Harry
S. Truman. He retired from the West Virginia National Guard as a lieutenant colonel in 1953. He died in 1956 at age 63 at
Bethesda Naval Hospital, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Papers of Harley M. Kilgore, U.S. Senator from West Virginia. Contains material on the Senate Judiciary Committee and its
various subcommittees including the anti-monopoly, internal security, and immigration groups. Other papers deal regard the
Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program (also known as the Truman Committee), West Virginia elections,
and the National Guard. There is one box of campaign materials and various speeches.
Correspondents include Bernard M. Baruch; Charles F. Brannan; Alben W. Barkley; Harry F. Byrd; Solon J. Buck; Price Daniel;
Everett M. Dirksen; Guy M. Gillette; W. Averell Harriman; Thomas Hennings; Rush Dew Holt, Sr.; Theodore F. Green; Estes Kefauver;
Lyndon B. Johnson; Herbert H. Lehman; George Jessel; Owen J. Roberts; Stuart Symington; Millard E. Tydings; Adlai E. Stevenson;
and Harry S. Truman.
Voice of America (oversize folder 2; formerly box 2, folder 13)
undated
Miscellaneous (oversize folder 3; includes statement by Kilgore from box 3, folder 7 and Cincinnati Post morning edition from
Nov. 12, 1918 from box 3, folder 9)
1918, 1947
Clippings (oversize folder 4; from box 6, folders 1 and 3)
ca. 1942-1944
Clippings (oversize folder 5; from box 6, folders 4a, 4b, and 5)
ca. 1943-1944
Miscellaneous Drawings (oversize folder 6; includes "An Application of coal Fuel to Liberty Ships" (1942), a capacity plan
for the SS Robert Treat Paine (1942), a schematic for a ship related to a patent applied for by John Phillips Badenhausen
(undated), and a complete mobile power plant plan by Badenhausen (1942), all from box 6, folder 5)
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